Spotlights

Medical device manufacturers can license, develop and manufacture a Purdue University design that incorporates an electric seat lift and integrated walker that could help users more easily sit into and get out of a traditional wheelchair.

Purdue University has formed an industry research consortium as part of a national center, led by Professor Tim Fisher, to create temperature-control technologies for dynamic energy systems on aerospace vehicles.

The recently announced $40 million Lilly Endowment grant is helping fund a major expansion of the nation's largest university propulsion laboratory for research aimed at reducing fuel consumption and emissions for next-generation jet engines.

Arezoo Ardekani and colleagues have developed a new, relatively simple process making it possible to create biocompatible particles called shape-controllable microgels that could be custom-designed for specific roles such as drug delivery vehicles, tissue engineering building blocks and biomedical research.

Rebecca Krone Kramer, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has been named to the Forbes’ 2015 "30 Under 30 Who are Moving the World" list in the manufacturing category. The list highlights innovators under the age of 30 "who are modernizing the way things are made in a greener, tech-savvy world."

Purdue University students completing a mechanical engineering senior design course will demonstrate 21 inventions, from a shape-morphing airplane wing and an inexpensive, lifelike prosthetic foot to an autonomous stadium-sweeping system.

Each year the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University recognizes alumni who have demonstrated excellence in industry, academia, governmental service, or other endeavors related to mechanical engineering. The 2014 OME honorees are John P. Clark, Jason T. LeRoy, Thomas W. Sederberg, Detlev K. Seidel, and Brent W. Webb.

Inexpensive microrobots capable of probing and manipulating individual cells and tissue for biological research and medical applications are closer to reality with the design of a system that senses the minute forces exerted by a robot's tiny probe.

Professor Timothy Fisher, James G. Dwyer Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and founder and Chief Technology Officer of BlueVine Graphene Industries, developed the technology that is enabling the company to address the challenge of scaling graphene production for commercial applications.